How quickly you credential depends on what state you’re in. Don’t forget to read Ho Sun’s excellent post about Medicare credentialing as well as my tips for credentialing (hint: do it yourself, definitely don’t hire a company, if anything find a trusted family member or friend), CAQH for commercial plans, and Medicaid credentialing, if your state’s rate justifies it.
Here’s my experience in Arizona:
BCBS: within one month
Aetna: told me network was full, then when I told them I wanted to change TIN and address, got the contract within one week. About two months in all.
Cigna: two months
UHC: this was a pain. Had to keep on phoning them because some documents got shuffled around and it took 4.5 months, a few weeks after I opened doors.
Health Net: kept on telling me network was full, finally joined through my IPA and even this took forever. About six months in all.
Medicaid plans: two of them within two months, one through my IPA (see Health net) and the biggest plan in my state took me about a year to get on.
Certain Medicare advantage plans: three to four years after I opened, through my ACOs or other methods.
The process never ends, and it doesn’t hurt to keep trying. Don’t stress out too hard if you can’t get into every single plan before you open, but being on Medicare is a must (for ophthalmologists as this is most of our patients), and it helps to be on the bigger ones in your area, usually BCBS, UHC and Aetna, before you open doors.